1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electrical contact having at least one locking lance projecting from the contact body for locking the contact in a contact receiving chamber of an electrical connector.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Known contacts of this type, both with and without outer back-up spring, have locking lances disposed on the contact or on the outer back-up spring, respectively, approximately in the longitudinal center of the contact or even in the vicinity of the wire terminating portion thereof. The electrical wires extending away from the wire terminating portions of contacts of a connector often are subjected to transverse forces during operation. These forces have the effect that a contact concerned performs pivotal motions transversely of its longitudinal direction, the pivotal axis of this pivotal motion being located in the region of the locking lances. When the locking lances are disposed in conventional manner in the longitudinal center or even at the wire-terminating-side end of the contact, such transverse forces acting on the terminated wire lead to a correspondingly great pivotal motion of the mating-side longitudinal end of the contact. These strong pivotal motions cause an undesired mechanical load of the connection between receiving contact and tab contact.
Furthermore, such strong pivotal motions may have the effect that the contact spring arms and the tab contact inserted therebetween are shifted with respect to each other in the width direction of the contact spring arms to such an extent that the remaining width overlapping portion between the contact spring arms and the tab contact inserted therebetween is not sufficient any more for ensuring the planned maximum current in the contact transition between the contact spring arms and the tab contact placed therebetween. With conventional solutions this can be countered only by producing receiving contact, tab contact, connector housings and the contact receiving chambers thereof with close tolerances. However, this results in an increase in manufacturing expenditure and manufacturing costs and in an aggravation of the operation of inserting the contacts into the contact receiving chambers.